The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of photographic vignetting and more particularly related to an apparatus and method of positive photographic vignetting.
Photographic vignetting is the process of interposing a vignetting member between the photographic subject and the camera lens to partially obstruct the light from the subject to cause the subject to gradually blend into a dark background on the finished photograph. This photographic vignetting, which the applicant terms negative vignetting, involves reduction only of the light received from the subject.
The classical vignetter is a partial mesh having a sawtooth edge which causes the blending effect. There are various devices which have been designed to implement negative vignetting. The most recent device known to the applicant can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,878 to Irving Steiner, issued Nov. 21, 1978. Here, a plurality of interfitting ring segments each filtering a different frequency of light are attached to a camera lens to modify the light coming from the subject in an artistic way. U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,992 is an older version of the Steiner concept which also deals with modifying the light from the subject.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,859 to Warren Huber, issued Nov. 7, 1978, one of several vignetting members can be selectively mounted to a housing which in turn is mounted to a camera lens to modify the light coming from the subject in an artistic way. U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,716 issued Aug. 15, 1978 to Irving Pfefer discloses a mounting for vignetting members which is attached to a camera lens. Here, the vignetting members and filters can be mounted in front of the camera lens to modify the light received from the subject for artistic purposes.
The device in U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,151, issued Sept. 8, 1970 to William Harrison, is an optical filter intended to be attached to a camera lens and has a diffusing section which acts to modify the light received from the subject. The device in U.S. Pat. No. 1,682,127, issued July 26, 1927 to A. S. Howell, is an adjustable photographic vignetter adapted to be mounted to a camera lens. Different vignetting effects are had with this device by adjusting the vignetter into different positions so that the light from the subject can be differently modified as desired. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,137,975, issued May 4, 1915 to C. R. Howard, is a means for mounting a vignetter member to the front of a camera.
There remains a need for what the applicant calls positive vignetting. That is some method and apparatus for lighting an area of a finished photograph with a light in addition to or in place of the normal subject light so that exposure of the film in this area is greater than would it would have been with the subject lighting alone. Therefore, the light used to provide the vignetting reflections is from a source other than the subject. None of the art known to the applicant discloses positive vignetting.